The Safety and Licensing Committee met 10/25/2023. One of the information items they reviewed was the 2024 Police Department Budget.
The discussion was not long, but there were a couple concerns that were raised that I thought might be of note to the general public, specifically Alderperson William Siebers’ (District 1) concerns regarding the way staffing levels at the Police Department have not kept up with the growth of the city and Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland’s (District 5) regarding the way the contracts of the Axon and Flock cameras and evidence storage had jumped in cost.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
Police Assistant Chief Todd Freeman did not go over the budget in details, but he did say that the Axon cameras and digital evidence storage and the Flock license plate readers were game changers for law enforcement and public safety. The digital evidence storage was a great time saver not only for staff at the Police Department but also in the Information Technology Department and the Attorney’s Office. He believed that was worth the investment even though the increased cost for the program was an eye raiser.
Alderperson Van Zeeland was alarmed by the almost 50% increase in the cost of the Axon contract. Based on her research, she believed this was due to a lack of competition. “[M]y concern is that this is going to keep going this direction. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to intervene in the meantime, but I wanted to point that out that it looks like police departments all over the place are getting drawn into these large contracts, multi years to try to save money. And then when the new contract comes, it jumps considerably.”
Unrelated to those items, Alderperson Siebers was really concerned that although the population of Appleton has grown over the years, police staff has not increased. “I’d like to know from somebody, be it the police chief, or be it the mayor, what is the plan in terms of bringing our staffing up to an area or a level that is at least decent?”
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) asked him if he had posed that question to Mayor Woodford and Police Chief Polly Olson, ahead of the budget discussion on 10/28/2023 to which Alderperson Siebers responded that he had discussed it at his quarterly meeting with the mayor and he was sure Assistant Chief Freeman would pass it on to Chief Olson. “I’ve said it over and over and over again until, you know—you know, I feel nobody listens. Someday somebody will listen, when something bad happens.”
Alderperson Croatt said, “I think it’s an important question. I just didn’t want them to be blindsided with a question they were unprepared to answer.”
Alderperson Siebers replied, “Somebody needs to be blindsided maybe.”
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1126481&GUID=D65BDCD3-F946-4DB6-9DE7-E2B7CC76429E
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